“Christmas started slowly but gathered pace towards an excellent outcome with key date performance particularly strong. Whilst our Like-for-Likes (as with everybody) benefit from sites that we have invested in, I was delighted to note that our Comparable (uninvested) Estate grew 4.9% over the Christmas period. The enduring strength of our business is further underlined by the fact that three of our first four sites set new record trading weeks. Our new sites also performed impressively with The Royal Foresters in Ascot averaging over £100k net per week and sites such as Beech House, Hampton Hill and The Cherry Tree, Olney smashing their respective targets.

“Our mood over Christmas was only dampened by the rather crass television adve

rt that the Government put out on the 27th of December reminding our EU colleagues that they will need to apply for permission to remain in their homes and places of work after Brexit. We thought the timing was poor with so many people in the hospitality, care and health sectors giving up their Christmas to look after others. We announced last year that we would fund all applications for Settled Status and support the process. In response to the advert we announced to our people on New Year’s Day that we will also extend the funding to family members.”

Looking forward to the year ahead, Borg-Neal added:

“We have two projects on site at present: The Polecat in Prestwood and the extension of The Beech House in Beaconsfield – both of which complete in the Spring. We are in the planning process for a further five sites and are close to completing on the freehold of a new site in Buckingham.